Bluth is not quite the new kid on the Indy block any more, but since he started setting for the paper, he has been a regular. I’ve enjoyed all his puzzles so far: he offers clear clueing, delightful surface readings and a wide range of subject matter. This one took a bit of teasing out, but it all fell into place eventually.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 What the tabloids call Susan Boyle’s badly trained assistant
SUBORDINATE
I can’t for the life of me imagine why Bluth thinks that the sophisticated, educated and achingly middle-class readers of the Independent would know any such low-brow tabloid abbreviations. Whatever, the Scottish singer who found fame on BGT is known as Subo, so it’s a charade of SUBO and (TRAINED)* with ‘badly’ as the anagrind.
7 Secretaries knocked back juice
SAP
This is ambiguous, sinced the reversal indicator (‘knocked back’) is in the middle of the two possibilities: it could lead to SAP or PAS, and you need a crossing letter before you can decide. This annoys some folk.
9 Screw up and down
FLUFF
I confidently entered ROTOR, which works except for the fact that it’s an across rather than a down clue. But in fact it’s a dd.
10 Considerably more than 25 taking hour in church
THREEFOLD
I wasn’t overly keen on this clue, mainly because THREEFOLD is a very vague definition of ‘considerably more’. It’s an insertion of HR in TEE, which is the solution to 25ac, followed by FOLD for ‘church’. The insertion indicator is ‘ taking … in’.
11 Early riser to turn up regularly revealing beer belly
COCKEREL
A charade of COCK in its ‘set erect’ meaning and EREL for the even letters of bEeR bElLy.
12 Pull street artist in
STRAIN
A charade of ST, RA and IN.
14 Choir plan working with him and orchestra?
PHILHARMONIC
(CHOIR PLAN HIM)* with ‘working’ as the anagrind. A term pretty much exclusively used for orchestras, I fancy.
17 Criminal mob dumps most of Eric ‘n Ernie’s output – for this?
PREMIUM BONDS
(MOB DUMPS ERI[C] N)* The anagrind is ‘criminal’. The surface reading is referencing the much-loved comedy duo, but Ernie in the definition is the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment, which is used to generate the winning Premium Bonds numbers every month. They were launched on Budget Day in April 1956. The first version of ERNIE was developed by a Bletchley Park code-breaker, and the latest version – ERNIE 5 – is powered by quantum technology.
20 Group of seven stars making right personal trainer choice
OPTION
The ‘seven stars’ are those in the constellation of ORION, the Hunter. Bluth is asking you to replace the R in that with PT, which is an abbreviation for ‘personal trainer’. Apparently.
21 Jan, a pole dancing little hottie?
JALAPENO
(JAN A POLE)* with ‘dancing’ as the anagrind. Referring to the hot pepper.
23 Flipping admit it ref, England’s holding on to legendary Egyptian
NEFERTITI
Hidden reversed in admIT IT REF ENgland.
24 Middle of Blackadder set ruined
KAPUT
A charade of KA for the middle letters of ‘Blackadder’ and PUT.
25 Time phone company showed support
TEE
A charade of T and EE, the mobile phone company of choice in my village because it’s the only one with a signal.
26 Nurses getting to grips with answer to crossword clue before journalist’s aware
ENLIGHTENED
You need two Enrolled Nurses, or ENs, to bookmark LIGHT for the jargon for ‘answer to crossword clue’; you need to follow all that with ED.
Down
1 P-plagiarise digital version
SOFT COPY
A charade of SOFT in the musical sense and COPY.
2 Whittle down first choice
BLUE-CHIP
A charade of BLUE for ‘down’ and CHIP. An adjective usually associated with stocks, but dictionaries give the setter’s broader definition as well. The term originates from gambling chips, where blue ones historically have a high value.
3 Cool drink to quickly follow extra lessons
REFRESHER COURSE
A charade of REFRESHER and COURSE. For the second element, think HARE-COURSING.
4 Up for international title boxing the French
IN THE FRAME
A charade of I and THE FR inserted into NAME. The insertion indicator is ‘boxing’.
5 Dangerous having no hospital open
AIRY
[H]AIRY
6 Cricket ball teen smashed finds extra cover
ELECTRIC BLANKET
Great surface for cricket lovers. (CRICKET BALL TEEN)* with ‘smashed’ as the anagrind.
7 Labour’s got a new catchphrase
SLOGAN
A charade of SLOG, A and N.
8 Mount Etna deposits somewhat academic
PEDANT
Hidden reversed in ETNA DEPosits. Since it’s a down clue, ‘mount’ is the reversal hint. My Collins has:
pedant (n) a person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail
13 Filling in pool – oddly exciting without spades
POPULATING
A charade of PO for the odd letters of ‘pool’ and PUL[S]ATING.
15 Corroborate name in accordance with detective to begin with
UNDERPIN
A charade of UNDER (‘in accordance with’), PI for Private Investigator and N.
16 Key to speak without a debate initially being guided
ESCORTED
A charade of ESC for the computer ‘key’, OR[A]TE and D for the first letter of ‘debate’.
18 Poem succeeded online?
SONNET
A charade of S, ON and NET.
19 Check steps – assuming foxtrot
STIFLE
An insertion of F for the phonetic alphabet ‘foxtrot’ in STILE. The insertion indicator is ‘assuming’.
22 In Washington DC – check legislation
BILL
In a restaurant in London, England, you’d ask for the BILL; in the equivalent in the US capital, you’d ask for the ‘check’. So you could see it as a dd.
Many thanks to Bluth for this Monday’s puzzle.
I found this at the easier end of Bluth’s range but no less enjoyable than usual. My page was littered with ticks and I struggled to decide which of them deserved to be on a short list of favourites.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Pierre.
Bluth always provides an enjoyable crossword and this one was no exception
I’m going to go for 17a as my favourite as I won £50 on them this month
Thanks very much to Bluth and Pierre
Pierre, re 1A: is it not the job of the setters, aided by the bloggers such as your good self, to drag the “sophisticated, educated and achingly middle-class readers of the Independent” out of their comfort zone occasionally?
Thank you to you all for my continuing education.
Worth the price of entry for NEFERTITI which gave me a real lol moment this morning. Along with the cunning word ordering in BLUE CHIP and the lovely ‘Mount Etna’ in PEDANT. And even this decidedly non-tabloid reader had heard – unfortunately, since it’s an ugly nickname – of SUBO.
Thanks Bluth and Pierre
Thanks both. Solved unaided in an enjoyable challenge – I take it ‘mount’ in PEDANT tells you to start at the rear? I also had small question marks against PREMIUM BONDS where the clue indicates singular, not plural, and LIGHTS which I thought were the empty parts of the grid, not the answers, but had never checked. I still don’t fully see how we arrive at COCKEREL, if the ‘cock’ element comes from ‘to turn up’
TFO, the ER, EL elements of COCKEREL come from ‘regularly revealing’ the letters of BEER BELLY.
Graham, irony often doesn’t come across well in the written word, does it?
An enloyable crossword solved without any problems. There was a bit of déja vu for us about 8dn; we have a feeling a very similar clue for PEDANT cropped up somewhere recently – not sure now where, or who the setter was – but these coincidences do happen.
Favourite was NEFERTITI.
Thanks, Bluth and Pierre.
I thought this was terrific. So many really cracking clues.
Very enjoyable. The North West corner held me up a bit.
Thanks Pierre and thanks all. I was travelling yesterday and had completely forgotten that the puzzle was published.
Fair comment re 7ac and its potential to work either way.
Re LIGHT. Chambers has: “in a crossword, the word (or sometimes an individual letter in the word) on the diagram that is the answer to a clue”
For those who are confused, Fed is Bluth in disguise, so the comment at 10 is from the setter.